


Stained Glass

by Cuppatea13



Series: The Stories of Arlie [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, Gen, Happy Birthday!, Interlude, Phil's birthday, and by hints I mean barely noticable, hints of Clintasha - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 07:47:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3373508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cuppatea13/pseuds/Cuppatea13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Phil's birthday, and he starts to think on how fate (or maybe something(one) else) brought this family together. (Main story is: Reliant, this is an interlude.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stained Glass

**Author's Note:**

> It's Phil's birthday and it's just a little interlude I wrote to get out some thoughts and feelings I have via Phil Coulson. Mostly because Phil as a character is most likely to have this realization.
> 
> So I hope you enjoy: read, review, send me interlude requests, ect. You all know the drill. Thanks to everyone who does all of the aforementioned.

**July 4th, 2008 (Phil)**

_This birthday is in my top 5_. The Avengers Initiative is coming together, and I've convinced Fury that both Clint and Natahsa need to be part of the team. Arlie and Clint managed to find me another Captain America card for my birthday and Natasha got me a really beautiful Glock. Arlie made my favorite Red Velvet cake and all is right with the world.

I have no idea how this little family came to be, but I thank fate for leading us all into it.

It's while Arlie and Clint sing Happy Birthday to me and Natasha rolls her eyes but gives a small smile that I have a realization.

This is all Arlie's doing.

This isn't  _fate_ \- it's Arlie Clara Barton.

She has always been there for each one of us, she listens to our sins and problems and doesn't offer criticism or even advice, just understanding and unwavering trust.

She has brought together and made this little family in so many ways. Clint and I had been close before he found Arlie- but it was Arlie who helped me fall into the fatherly role I now take with the Bartons. And it's the job I am proudest of. She teased me and made sure I knew how to take care of Clint in ways that would've taken me years longer to figure out. She let me give advice until  _not_  doing so seemed unnatural.

She also pulled her brother into the world of the living so he was completely invested in staying alive. She let him act like a child with her and also let him take care of her (with minimal complaints) and let him know in a thousand tiny ways that he may be an assassin, but he was always her big brother.

An important realization for Clint after his dealings with Barney.

And I was just now beginning to realize that from the beginning, Natasha was aware of Arlie's existence. And that was partially because Clint trusted her (for some reason I still don't understand) from the very beginning. But it was also because Clint  _knew_.

He knew that Arlie saves people.

And if anyone ever needed saving, it was Natasha Romanoff.

Arlie was, for all of us, our family and also our confessional. She  _created_  this group. Natasha was someone her brother had brought home and Arlie immediately included her in all the goings on of our little family. Natasha would have never adjusted so quickly and so well emotionally if it weren't for Arlie.

Arlie was by no means perfect- though Clint and I could probably argue all day to anyone that she was- but she knew how to create a lasting family around her, taking all the broken pieces of each one of us and mixing in her own shattered fragments to create a stained glass window of a family.

It was something beautiful to see.

 _Never mind,_  I decided as Arlie served up cake to all of us and showed Clint how she had got a chocolate bar for him as well,  _this particular birthday was the best._


End file.
